Boston Marathon attracts record turnout

The 118th Boston Marathon took place April 21, attracting 36,000 entrants or 9,000 participants than 2013. Meb Keflezighi, 38, was the first American man to win the race since 1983. Kenyan Rita Jeptoo won the women’s race in 2:18:57, a course record.

Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center (BCNC) was represented by Brendan Greally of Boston, 37, and Chloe Poon of Somerville, 25. Emily Weng, 21, and Julia Kuo, 26, who represented BCNC in 2013, ran in the marathon again as they were turned away from the finish line due to the bombings.

Chloe Poon and Brendan Greally represented the Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center in the 2014 Boston Marathon, pictured at the center on April 15. (Image courtesy of Ling-Mei Wong.)

“The Boston marathon is a celebration for the city, or how strong we are,” Poon said. “We can’t let last year put a cloud over this year.”

A moment of silence commemorated the 2013 victims Krystle Campbell, Lingzi Lu and Martin Richard. A fourth victim, MIT police officer Sean Collier, was shot by the Tsarnaev brothers, who are accused of carrying out the attack.

Greally and Poon trained for the marathon since January 2014. Poon had run half-marathons before, while Greally decided to run after the 2013 marathon.

“There’s a lot of thinking in 3.5 hours about why you’re doing this,” Greally said. “It’s more a mental struggle than a physical one. Your body can keep running if the mind tells it to.”

Greally celebrated with friends and other runners at Faneuil Hall after his run.

BCNC was awarded two marathon bibs from the John Hancock Non-Profit Marathon Program. Each runner must raise $5,000, with Poon and Greally setting a record at $20,902 as of April 22.

About Ling-Mei Wong 黃靈美

Editor of the Sampan, the only bilingual Chinese-English newspaper in New England
舢舨報紙總編輯。舢舨是全紐英倫唯一的中英雙語雙週報。